The Islamist terror group Boko Haram’s escalating war against Christians and a violent nationwide protest against the end to government fuel subsidies have brought Nigeria to the edge of civil war.

Boko Harem began its current escalation with the Christmas Day suicide bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Niger state, an attack which killed over 50 people.

The bombing of St. Theresa induced Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on December 31 to place the Muslim-dominant northern Nigerian states of Borno, Yobe, Niger and Plateau — areas that have been witness to most of Boko Haram’s attacks — under emergency rule.

For its part, Boko Harem responded to the emergency declaration by issuing a 3-day ultimatum to southern Christians living in the north of Nigeria to leave. When the ultimatum’s deadline expired, Boko Harem members subsequently killed over 60 Christians in gun and bomb attacks.

In the process, a Boko Haram spokesman let it be known that the Islamist group’s deadly reach wasn’t confined to a specific geographic region, saying, “We can really go to wherever we want to go.”

To prove that point, most of the killings took place in locations not placed under emergency rule, murders which included more than 30 Christians gunned down at two church services in Adamawa state and six people killed during a church service in Gombe state.

At the same time it was engaged in its Christian killing spree, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the assassination of Modu Bintube, a member of parliament from Borno state; opened fire on customers at a local beer hall in Yobe state, killing eight civilians and four policemen; detonated bombs at a police station in Gombe state; and attacked a police headquarters and robbed and burnt two banks in Yobe state.

Nevertheless, Nigerian General Onyeabor Ihejirika claimed that Nigerian security forces and counter-terrorism units had brought the security situation in the north “under control.”

Of course, Christians may be skeptical about the Nigerian government’s ability to protect them from the Islamist killers, given that in 2011 alone Boko Haram murdered over 500 people, most of whom were Nigerian Christians, including over 130 who were killed in one attack in November 2011 in the northeastern Nigerian city of Damaturu.

Moreover, Boko Haram doesn’t seem to be losing its appetite for waging jihad. That fervor was on display recently when Boko Haram leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau, declared in his first ever televised appearance that Boko Haram was “at war with Christians” and that its fighters “will continue to kill and are ready and willing to be killed themselves as martyrs.”

So, given all that, it wasn’t too surprising then to hear Nigeria’s Christian leadership no longer willing to turn the other cheek to Boko Haram’s genocidal activities. That resolve was issued by Ayo Oritsejafor, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, who called the killing of Christians by Boko Harem “systematic ethnic and religious cleansing.”

As such, Oritsejafor urged his followers to “do whatever it takes” to defend themselves against “these senseless killings,” adding, “We have the legitimate right to defend ourselves.”

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